The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg

by

Alexey Kondakov

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of

Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Political Studies

University of Manitoba

Winnipeg

Copyright © 2016 by Alexey Kondakov The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 2

Table of Contents Introduction ...... 7

Immigration, Society and Politics in Canada ...... 8

Representation of Minority Communities ...... 10

Research questions ...... 13

Theoretical framework and methodology ...... 15

Theoretical Framework ...... 15

Riding ecology and the scope of the research ...... 16

The concept of ethnic vote ...... 17

Methodology ...... 20

Participants ...... 21

Analysis: How do MPs Learn? ...... 27

Advertising ...... 27

Social media ...... 30

Canvassing ...... 32

Email newsletters ...... 35

Team members ...... 36

Events ...... 38

Attending events ...... 38

Event planning ...... 42

Issues ...... 44

Defining issues and policy learning ...... 45

Policy advocacy ...... 48

Conclusion and discussion ...... 52 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 3

The importance of riding ecology ...... 54

Personal preferences ...... 55

Drawbacks ...... 57

Bibliography ...... 59

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 4

Abstract

Representation of ethnic communities is a matter of importance for Canada.

Members of various ethnic communities tend to be habitual non-voters, not engaged into political life. This thesis examines how five Liberal Members of

Parliament from the city of Winnipeg Interviews were used to get a better understanding of practices, used by five Liberal Members of Parliament from the city of Winnipeg during and after their campaigns in 2015. This allowed for a better understanding of how do MPs reach out to their ethnic community constituents, learn about their needs. It was found that differences in the way

MPs reach out to ethnic communities were mainly attributing to differences in riding ecology, personal view and preferences, and communities MPs work with.

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 5

Acknowledgments

There are many people without whom I won’t be able to walk that road. First, I’d like to express my gratitude to my advisor Dr. Royce Koop. Not only he was assisting me in every way possible during our work on this thesis, he was my mentor during my first years in Canada, for which I am truly grateful. I would like to thank members of a larger University community for their assistance throughout this entire process. I would also like to thank MPs and members of their teams I spoke with for showing me what is representation and politics beyond the headlines. Finally, I would like to thank my wife and my family for their love and care. Without their support this thesis wouldn’t exist.

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 6

Dedication

For my family and Canadian diversity.

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 7

Introduction

Representation of ethnic minorities is necessary for the ideal performance of the government of a country as diverse as Canada. Canadians who associate themselves with ethnic communities have distinct sets of concerns, which may not often concur with those of other Canadians. To Canadians of ethnic backgrounds, representation means empathy and understanding of these issues. Constrained by party discipline and the issues associated with non- ethnic Canadians, Members of Parliament (MPs) must find balance to represent all their constituents. Finding this balance constitutes the style of MPs’ representation insofar as ethnic minority communities are concerned. A legislator’s representational style is composed of their work in Ottawa and their voting decisions, as well as the ways MPs present and explain themselves and their achievements to their local electorates.

Mostly quantitative research has been done on electoral participation of minorities in Canada. Being empirical and descriptive, these studies give solid historical or policy background. These studies include topics as the parliamentary reform, electoral districts, the analysis of the global trend to include more immigrants in the democratic process, or the general theory of representation. 1

The topic of representation of ethnic minority Canadians, however, has yet to be covered by close-range qualitative research. In particular, the

1 Waver 1997, Tossutti 2007, Harell 2013, Forest 2012, Austin Hinton 2015 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 8 perspectives and experiences of elected officials themselves is a topic of substantial importance; despite this, very little research has been conducted to address it. To address this deficiency, this thesis will study the representational styles of five Liberal MPs from the city of Winnipeg when it comes to representing ethnic minorities in their ridings.

Immigration, Society and Politics in Canada

Canadians of ethnic minority background constitute an economically active and rapidly growing group of Canada's overall population. According to

Statistics Canada, Canada was home to 6.8 million foreign-born residents, or

20.6% of its population in 2011, compared with 19.8% in 2006. The percentage of foreign-born residents in Canada is higher than in any other G8 country.2 In

2016, the government plans to accept up to 300,000 newcomers. This number is an increase of about 20,000 from the goal for 2015.3 Steadily growing, immigrant communities across the country articulate their political interests and demands to the government of their new home. Notwithstanding the fact that it may not be accurate to generalize about all foreign-born Canadians’ perceptions of representation or political demands, I can argue that the “ethnic vote” is crucially important. Hence, representation of ethnic communities becomes an

2 Statistics Canada 2011 3 Ibid. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 9 important priority on the agenda of political parties’ strategies during election campaigns.

Immigration is not only changing Canada’s demographics; it is also changing the issues on the agendas of Canada’s political parties. In the early

1990s, Canada changed the vector of its immigration policy towards accepting more applications from skilled and well-educated workers.4 In 2000s, this vector was changed again, towards even more specific professions in the skilled workers stream, alongside the international student-led Canadian Experience

Class program.5 Political integration of generally well-educated experienced and highly skilled immigrants required a higher naturalization rate, and, hence, changes in immigration policies. Rapid and simplified naturalization granted foreign-born Canadians political rights. Bloemraad (2006) maintains that

Canada’s official policy of multiculturalism plays an important role in this regard, by formalizing ties between immigrant groups and the state and signaling the state’s acceptance of diversity in a manner that resonates with newcomers.

Marwah et al. (2013) suggest that to alienate large numbers of immigrant voters in dozens of federal ridings would almost certainly mean surrendering those ridings to other parties.6 Given all this, we should expect Canadian political parties to move to the political centre in the sense that they limit the politicization of immigration policy-making and compete for the votes of

4 Bloemraad 2006 5 Ibid. 6 Triadafilopoulos, Marwah and White 2013 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 10 immigrant voters by advancing immigrant-friendly positions and policies.

Marwah et al. (2013) maintain that Canadian parties are drawn to relatively open positions on immigration policy because ensures that immigrants are able to express their interests and have them politically acknowledged.

Representation of Minority Communities

Nevertheless, electoral participation of ethnic minorities is still lacking, and I can theorize that at least one reason for that is their alienation from politics. Hence, better representation and reaching out to ethnic communities may improve the situation. As suggested by a number of studies on electoral participation of members of ethnic communities: the turnout of members of

Ethnic Communities (From here on ECs) is lower in general than that of other

Canadians.7

As Bilodeau and Turgeon (2015) show in their report for Elections

Canada, self-reported voting in provincial and federal elections among visible minority Canadians was 68%, while 84% of other Canadians report that they have expressed their opinions at the polls. Not only are visible minority and immigrant Canadians less likely to vote than other Canadians, there are in fact

7 Tossutti 2007, Bilodeau and Turgeon 2015 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 11 some groups among them that habitually do not engage in the electoral process.8 More specifically, they point out,

“… the explanation for visible minority Canadians relates mainly to their

socio-demographic status; a large proportion of visible minority

Canadians in our sample are recent immigrants (24%) and recent

immigrants appear more likely to be habitual non-voters.” 9

This reference to the new political culture resonates with other scholars working in the field. Alienation, they say, is not the only reason why members of this community decline to participate. A work by Uppal and LaRochelle-Côté

(2012) and Ginieniewicz (2010), for example, find that a lack of democratic traditions from the origins countries and a lack of trust in government institutions are both related to low turnout. 10 Other findings indicate that disunity, short length of residence, a disadvantaged economic situation, and the lack of an efficient leadership are all perceived as major obstacles to increasing the representational levels of the community. 11

In particular, Uppal and LaRochelle-Côté (2012) analyze turnout rates across regions of birth of newcomers to strengthen their argument. Their study shows that new Canadians born in West Central Asia and the Middle East (53%) or East Asian countries (54%) tend to be the least engaged in the electoral process, while people born in Western and Northern Europe (77%) or, as they

8 Bilodeau and Turgeon 2015, p. 39 9 Ibid., p. 40 10 Uppal and LaRochelle-Côté 2012; Ginieniewicz 2010 11 Ginieniewicz 2010 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 12 call it, 'Anglosphere' countries (United States, United Kingdom (U.K.), Ireland,

Australia and New Zealand) (77%) vote in higher numbers which can only be explained by the political culture of the donor country.12

Uppal and LaRochelle-Côté expand this argument by studying differences within communities between recent immigrants and first generation

Canadians of ethnic origin who spent more than 10 years in the country.13 For all source regions, the rates of electoral participation were higher among established immigrants. For example, only 43% of new African-Canadians voted in the 2011 election, compared to 70% of established newcomers from their community (Uppal and LaRochelle-Côté 2012). They also find a similar tendency among Canadians with ties to Eastern Europe (21%), and the Middle East (17%)

(Uppal and LaRochelle-Côté 2012).

Scholars as Ginieniewicz questioned the idea of inclusiveness of local communities. He analyzes the perception of one ethnic group, in his case – Latin

American, towards their political representation. He also works with the already mentioned variables of ethnicity and community membership. He argues that these variables influence the perception of inclusiveness and representation of one specific ethnic community.

Of course, it cannot be argued in a conclusive manner, but alienation and low-socio economic status are linked to underrepresentation of new Canadians from ethnic communities. The fact that, as Bilodeau and Turgeon suggest, there

12 Ginieniewicz 2010 13 Uppal and LaRochelle-Côté 2012 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 13 is a correlation between living in Canada for more than 10 years and a higher propensity of engaging in the electoral process strengthens the case for that conclusion. Studies conclusively that the government should do more to reach out to recent immigrants in order to stimulate and facilitate their transition to

Canada’s political culture. 14

Research questions

In this thesis, I build upon this prior work on ethnic minority Canadians and electoral politics by addressing the following two research questions:

1. How do MPs seek to represent ethnic communities?

2. How can we explain differences in how MPs represent such communities?

The first chapter of this thesis is a brief overview of the existing literature on the topic of representation. The second chapter will outline the methodology used for this research. In particular, this chapter will discuss the literature discussion. The third chapter will answer the “how” question in the process of representation. Namely, it will discuss and analyse the ways MPs, candidates, and their campaign/MP office teams reach out to ECs in the ridings and in the city of Winnipeg in particular. The following fourth chapter is a logical continuation of the previous one as it attempts to answer the “why” question.

14 Ginieniewicz 2010, Bilodeau and Turgeon 2015, p. 39 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 14

Here I attempt to discuss and analyse representation styles, strategies, and differences MPs have had during and after the election campaign of 2015.

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 15

Theoretical framework and methodology

This section will draw a picture of the discussion that is in the literature.

First, main theories of representation will be assessed and briefly discussed in the context of this research. Namely, the works of Blidook and Pitkin will be assessed. Second, the definition of ethnic vote will be presented. I will elaborate on the two approaches scholars view ethnic vote. I will review the debate between the position of Wolfinger, who defends the notion of assimilation, and

Parenti, debating for acculturation, as main factors influencing ethnic vote.

Third, the methodology used for this study will be examined.

Theoretical Framework

This work will be grounded in the research of Hanna Pitkin, particularly her conceptual book “The Concept of Representation” (1967) in which she outlines “substantive” and “descriptive” forms of representation.15 To Pitkin, descriptive representation is the idea that elected officials while in office represent interest of ethnic, linguistic, racial, socioeconomic, or regional group. i.e. descriptive characteristics of voters’ matter in this case. Substantive representation, she describes, is the tendency to “act for” their constituencies, as it is policy, substance based, grounded in personal and/or political party’s views.

15 Pitkin 1967 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 16

In his analysis of these two forms of representation, Kelly Blidook (2012) accentuates the specifics of the Canadian case of representation. His research helped to edge the theoretical framework of this thesis.16 First, Blidook outlined

Wahlke and colleagues’ ideas on two dimensions of representation: “the focus” of representation and “the style” of representation.17 He explains that “focus” is best described as the “who” of representation, whether it is “a partisan, geographic, or national constituency”. The style, he describes, is “the how” of representation, whether it’s the form of a dependent “delegate” or a more independent “trustee”.18

Second, Blidook captures the role of different actors and constraints usually imposed on them by governments and institutions. These constraints influence the aforementioned “style” and “focus”.19 He distinguishes the role of the party, party platform, and political leadership in shaping the limits of the possibilities, responsibilities, and the degree of accountability each individual

MP has, and therefore the kinds of representatives they can be.20

Riding ecology and the scope of the research

This section draws a picture of the diversity of Winnipeg with particular attention to five ridings, representatives of which agreed to speak to me. These

16 Blidook 2012 p. 9 17 Wahlke, et al. 1962 18 Blidook 2012 p. 10 19 Ibid. p. 9 20 Ibid., p. 8 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 17

MPs not only they described to me the ethnic composition of their ridings, they gave their perspectives on what this means for them in terms of representational style. In this section, I will discuss the “who” of representation – ethnic communities’ candidates reached out now represent as elected MPs. A brief overview of the scientific discussion of what constitutes the ethnic vote will be attempted.

In this thesis, I will be arguing for a broader scope of who can be considered an underrepresented minority. Existing literature focuses either on visible minorities, minorities of colour, first generation Canadians – newcomers.

However, no single one of those groups fully reflects the group of people I am studying. Hence, the object of representation in this thesis is the group “ethnic communities”, people who identify themselves as Canadians of non-aboriginal heritage, and don’t speak English as their mother tongue. What distinguishes them from aforementioned categories are issues that are important and distinctive to them.

The concept of ethnic vote

The city of Winnipeg is almost as diverse as the country in general. In

2011, 21.5% of its’ residents had mother tongue that was neither English,

French or an Aboriginal language. In comparison, only 19% of Canadians said that their mother tongue is neither English nor French. It is important to note that, by including Francophones in the category of ethnic minority, an exact The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 18 quarter of Winnipeg’s population (25%) therefore is of an ethnic, cultural, or linguistic minority, regardless if they are first generation Canadians or not. 21

Voting is a two-step process, where the actual act of voting is preceded by a decision-making process whereby a voter has to examine the issues that are important to them and how the candidates involved in the election respond to those concerns. This process is even more complex for immigrant and visible minority voters, as they may choose to take into account not only their own individual concerns, but also those of their co-ethnic group (Jacoby 2012).

Wolfinger argues that the phenomenon of ethnic voting, which was common among immigrant communities in the early 1960s, is characterized by two elements. First, "members of an ethnic group show sympathy for one party or the other which cannot be explained solely as a result of other demographic characteristics." Secondly, "members of an ethnic group will cross party lines to vote for - or against - a candidate belonging to a particular ethnic group."

Although assimilation theory holds that ethnic voting is strongest amongst first generation immigrants and will decrease as subsequent generations move into the middle class and re-examine their traditional political beliefs, Wolfinger counters by arguing that the development of a middle class is a pre-requisite of ethnic voting. 22

21 Statistics Canada. 2012

22 Wolfinger 1965 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 19

In his alternative to assimilation thinking, Wolfinger's mobilization theory contends that ethnic voting will occur after an ethnic group has developed a mainstream middle class consciousness that is essential for members of that group to seek a candidacy. Since the middle class status is a necessary requirement for entering electoral politics, and because minority groups do not, on average, reach that level of socio-economic status until sometime after the first generation has passed, ethnic voting is strongest in subsequent generations.23

In reply, Parenti challenges Wolfinger's mobilization theory, arguing that the persistence of ethnic voting patterns into later generations has very little to do with notions of assimilationist thinking or its by-products.24 Parenti doubts the concept of assimilation and instead, perceives acculturation as the driving force behind ethnic voting. Although second or third generation individuals have adopted certain aspects of their new culture, there remains a cultural sub- structure which continues to shape political preferences. "Even when most of the lifestyles assume an American middle-class stamp, these in-group social patterns reinforce ethnic identifications and seem to give them an enduring nature." (Parenti 1967) It is this social sub-structure that brings like-minded people together to pursue common political objectives and lends itself to the maintenance of ethnic identification and voting patterns, regardless of

23 Ibid. 24 Parenti 1967 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 20 generation gaps. (Parenti 1967)

An important conclusion I can derive from this theoretical debate is that there are different factors, that influence ethnic vote, although neither Parenti, nor Wolfinger name them directly. Thus, economic well-being and the degree of adoption of the lifestyle of the dominant culture play the most important role.

Methodology

The methodology for this study involves interviews. I have interviewed five Liberal MPs in Winnipeg ridings; those MPs' staff when it was possible; and a representative of the Chinese community association. The interviews were semi-structured to allow for two-way communication and flexibility in the discussions. Interviews were conducted in person, recorded, and transcribed.

In the course of interviews with MPs, I asked questions about their experience of interaction with members of ethnic community associations, organized or not. We discussed the difference of that experience during and after the 2015 election campaign. We also discussed the needs and preferences of members of those communities and how MPs seek to address them. Overall, the main theme of these interviews was the process of communication between

MPs and their constituents of the ethnic background.

The interview methodology selected for the data collection method allowed me to gain the information of great value regarding the selected research questions. The questions I asked my participants were designed to examine the importance of various factors of influence. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 21

Participants

For my interviews for this project, I invited every Liberal MP in the city of

Winnipeg. My main motivation behind that was to eliminate the element of partisan politics in my analysis. Further, all MPs interviewed therefore sit in the government rather than the opposition. Only interviewing members from one party allowed me to control for differences between MPs in different parties and in government versus opposition.

I interviewed 5 members of the caucus: Hon. Minister Jim Carr, Dan

Vandal, Terry Duguid, Kevin Lamoureux, and Douglas Eyolfson. I was able to interview some of the members of their staff alongside MPs or as separate participants.

Jim Carr

Jim Carr, Minister of Natural Resources, is the representative for

Winnipeg South Centre. 19.7% of his constituents relate themselves to an ethnic community.25 Carr himself has Jewish ancestry, but he did not mention any possible influence this could have had on his campaign during the course of the interview. Thus, he did not provide any information on the descriptive style of

25 Statistics Canada. 2012

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 22 representation for his campaign. This is what he had to say about his constituency and, hence, his representational style:

“It's diverse. 13% is of Ukrainian background. 9% is of Jewish origin. There are Filipino, Indo-Canadians, Chinese Canadians. It's reflective of the diversity of the city and the province itself. There aren't large concentrations of ethnic groups as in other ridings. That's the nature of Canada. Plurality is what distinguishes us and the way we accommodate and embrace difference. These values are reflected in our immigration policies, our refugee policies, in who we are as Canadians.”

It may be theorized at this point that Carr’s style of representation was substantive-leaning, agenda and policy based. He did not bring up his personal connection to the Jewish community. Instead, representation of ethnic communities to him was a reflection of his party’s platform and ideas, such as multiculturalism, diversity, etc.

Dan Vandal

Dan Vandal is the representative for St. Boniface - St. Vital, a riding with a significant cultural and historical influence of the Francophone community.

Vandal is of Métis heritage and is Francophone himself. He emphasised his involvement and the role he plays in representing the Francophone and Métis communities of Winnipeg. He is member of two standing committees on Official

Languages and Canadian Heritage. 27% of his riding constituents speak French or other non-aboriginal languages as their mother tongue. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 23

This is Vandal’s description of the riding he represents:26

“The largest is French, about 20%. Next is German and Ukrainian. There's a lot of East Indian, Sikh - no more than 2% of the whole population. One thing I did notice - is if you go to the south of the ward - you will get a lot of new Canadians in Sage Creek. An amazing amount of them. There are new blocks, I knocked on doors there - there are a lot of new Canadians. Of course when you get to the north part, around Saint Boniface University, you'll see a lot of French speaking people from Africa. They are there for education. That becomes apparent in the North part of the ward.”

Vandal accurately described the demographics of certain parts of his riding.

Here and in his other answers he explained why people of certain ethnic communities decide to move in to these neighbourhoods. As will be analyzed later, this had an influence on his message at the doors while canvassing.

Douglas Eyolfson

Douglas Eyolfson is the representative for Charleswood—St. James—

Assiniboia—Headingley. He has Icelandic ancestry, but he did not emphasise this during the course of his interview. Only 12.5% of his constituents said that their mother tongue is French or another non-aboriginal language, other than

English. This is the only riding analyzed with a percentage of ethnic minorities lower that the city-wide percentage. Eyolfson recognized this fact multiple times during his interview; he acknowledged that it had a direct impact on his representational style. 27

26 Statistics Canada. 2012 27 Statistics Canada. 2012 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 24

“It is not as diverse as a lot of ridings. But because of immigration there is a lot more communities, as the Indian community, the biggest non- Caucasian community. There's a significant Muslim community.” Eyolfson acknowledged the homogeneity of his riding, yet highlighted his commitment to engage with all the communities in his ward.

Kevin Lamoureux

Kevin Lamoureux is the representative for Winnipeg North, the most diverse riding in the city of Winnipeg. The percentage of self-declared ethnic minorities, people who speak a non-aboriginal language that is different from

English is 35%, followed by 29% for Robert-Falcon Ouellette’s riding of

Winnipeg Centre.28

Mr. Lamoureux described his constituency’s diversity in the following way:

“Winnipeg North has a very rich heritage and the diversity has been fairly consistent since its creation. At the end of the day the largest community now is the people of the Filipino heritage, followed by the Ukrainian heritage, First Nation Heritage. Then there is a variety of ethnic groups, including very strong Punjabi heritage.”

Interestingly, Lamoureux emphasised a long history of well-established communities of his riding, namely the Ukrainian, Punjabi, and Filipino communities.

28 Statistics Canada. 2012

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 25

Terry Duguid

Terry Duguid is the representative for Winnipeg South. 28% of his riding’s constituents speak a language that is not English and is not of an aboriginal group. This riding in south Winnipeg is largely suburban in its makeup.29

Duguid was very outspoken about the diversity of his riding and provided a broad description of its’ influence on his representational style.

“I would describe Winnipeg South as a very diverse riding. While the North part of the city is ethnically diverse it has very large ethnic groups: The Punjabi community, largely Sikh, the Pilipino community. We have a little bit of everything here in Winnipeg South. 7% of our population is of Chinese heritage, 7% indo-Canadian, 4-5% African, 4% Russian, 13% Ukrainian, 7% Polish. But we are very diverse, not one community dominates. I like to call Winnipeg South a little piece of Canada because if you look at Canada and our diversity, we have French, English. 15% French, 4% First nations, 5% Metis. We have cultures from around the world. In Winnipeg South, which is a unique part of the city, we have the largest Chinese community in Winnipeg. We have a large Chinese migration, Mandarin speaking people. Large Indo-Canadian community, particularly people from Punjab and Gujarat. Those are two states in India. We have a large Pakistani community and a large Muslim community. About 5% of our population is Muslim. A lot of Africans and Africa of course is 54 countries. Across the river there are French Speaking African communities from Congo, Cameroon. So there are French Speaking Africans across the river because there that is there language, from where they come from and they want their kids to speak it. The riding is very diverse. We have a lot of Iranians as well. We have Pakistani student associations.”

Duguid emphasised the specificity of his riding’s ecology: no one community dominates in pure numbers. This diversity presents a variety of issue challenges

29 Statistics Canada. 2012 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 26 as Duguid seeks to represent the interests of the members of these different communities.

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 27

Analysis: How do MPs Learn?

In this chapter, I discuss the methods Liberal MPs from five different

Winnipeg ridings use to reach out to constituents that belong to ethnic minority communities in an attempt to answer the research questions. First, how do MPs seek to represent ethnic communities? Second, how can we explain differences in how MPs represent such communities?

First, this chapter will examine the way MPs reach out to their ethnic constituents during and after the election campaign of 2015 general election.

Means and methods MPs themselves and their campaign staff used to communicate with ECs will be discussed here. Second, this chapter will discuss issues MPs think ethnic communities have. Based on their answers this section will draw pictures of how do MPs learn about these issues and what they do to play an advocate’s role for the ECs.

Advertising

An election campaign can hardly take place without political advertising.

Political ads diverse by medium they are published in, and that variety includes those media that are run by and/or for ECs. Ethnic communities often have their own print newspapers, radio and TV stations, and websites. Depending on the number of ethnic community members in a city and their degree of establishment, candidates may reach out to them via niche or ethnic The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 28 newspapers. Despite this fact, candidates and MPs tended to prioritize general voters and broad audience to the tactics of targeted advertisement.

It is common to see large and established Winnipeg ethnic communities to have bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly newspapers, journals, and other periodicals. Available at ethnic stores, small shops, and in community centres they are popular among the members of ethnic communities. Very few of these publications use the subscription business model, relying on income from advertising. As Dan Vandal noted,

“[Ethnic newspapers] is something we use. We spread the message at ethnic shops, restaurants. We do that on a regular basis. Ethnic newspapers, other than the French newspapers aren't necessarily based in our riding. They go all over Winnipeg, but often as a caucus we share half-page or 3/4 page. There's 7 of us in the caucus, we share the cost of that. I know a gentleman who owns a Korean newspaper. He lives in Norwood. We've taken some ads during the election. Sometimes we go and outreach to specific communities.”

The necessity of increasing name recognition through advertisement has been critical for the campaign of Douglas Eyolfson. As Eyolfson noticed in respect to advertising:

“There's much of different roles. As a candidate, not being well known I had to I had to introduce myself to people, tell them who I am. I'm making a pitch to people of this is what I'm going to do for you and this is what I'm going to accomplish, this is how I'm different from other candidates why I would be better for you than them.”

Eyolfson explained how advertising was crucial to introducing himself as a first- time candidate to the people of his riding. Name recognition was one of the The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 29 focuses of his campaign, he claims, and he’s managed to achieve it with the help of the press.

Riding ecology plays a particular role in deciding to invest campaign money into ads in citywide platforms: citywide news outlets were preferred by candidates in less diverse ridings, as Douglas Eyolfson noticed.

“I hadn't done [targeting specific communities]. My efforts were basically on the community in large. The Metro, the newspaper that everyone gets, we put signs. I wasn't targeting actual groups, I was targeting everyone around, knocking on all doors I could.”

Eyolfson summarized his preference to reaching out to ethnic communities via citywide news outlets, not necessarily singling out particular communities or groups.

Candidates in more diverse ridings, such as Winnipeg South approached this strategy differently. Terry Duguid, particularly, put ads not only in larger city- wide newspapers, but also appealed to some large identifiable communities in their newspapers.

“We do reach out to particularly our larger identifiable communities because they have events. They have publications, that means they have newspapers for in some cases. We help by putting ads, we support their events by buying tickets, we make sure we are there.”

Duguid identified his approach to acknowledge the importance of the largest communities residing in his riding for his campaign. The reason for this is a practical one: larger organizations tend to have more events MPs can attend.

This will be discussed in the course of the paper in details. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 30

Newspaper ads where MPs celebrate their constituents with national and religious holidays is a common practice, as Jim Carr noted.

“The one way we do is to advertise in ethnic newspapers, to celebrate important days. In case of the Jewish community we will put ads in the Jewish post on Passover and Hanukkah. Similarly, in other ethnic papers to communicate that way. That's what other members of Parliament will do. We do it in ways that are consistent with the break down ethnically with the community itself. The folklorama time - we are very active in visiting pavilions, advertising, sending good wishes. That kind of public relations.”

Carr also emphasized the regularity of this kind of advertising. Congratulatory messages are a common practice, critical not only for building, but also for maintaining connections with ECs, he says.

Social media

An interesting trend of the last election campaign for the Liberal Party was an emphasis on social media. Voters shared candidate ads and party messages themselves, large constituencies could be reached out in days.30

Acclaimed as a new method of reaching out to voters, particularly to youth,

Social Media have not been on the top of the agenda of Winnipeg MPs I spoke with.

As Dan Vandal pointed out in regards to his campaign’s approach to the use of social media:

30 Basen 2015 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 31

“I'm not convinced it's as effective as some people think it is, but I don't think you can ignore it. You are a fool if you ignore it. You have to engage in that, you have to do as good a job as you can. But it is really just activities, events. I try to go as often as I can. There's going to be a lot of people that potentially live in your community at those events. We try to be as active on social media, we can't ignore it, but I'm not convinced. It does not replace face to face.”

Vandal admitted that his campaign was checking the box, relying on face-to- face campaigning, particularly door knocking.

Spreading the word on platforms popular among specific ethnic and language communities was often used by candidates. Terry Duguid noticed in regards to some examples:

“We use WeChat to communicate with our Chinese communities, which is very unique, because don't speak English. They don't communicate via Social media.”

Singling out one particular app, Duguid however did not mention other platforms popular among different communities of his riding.

Social media is still not something MPs rely on a great deal. That said, they are open to try yet another platform for reaching out to residents of their community as Dan Vandal pointed out:

“We had an Idea for Facebook live chat. Nothing specific other than that. We haven't explored yet the personalized videos we can do for specific cultural events. The Belgian Independence Day [for example]. We are still new. There's always something new every 5 weeks that you can go to.”

Vandal’s team joined the trend of the popular video format in 2015; this was the only example of an innovative social media approach ever mentioned. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 32

Canvassing

As Canadian election campaigns becoming more complex and digitalized, face-to-face conversation, door knocking, and in some way landline home phone canvassing remain the way candidates communicate their message to voters.

To a certain degree, knocking on doors was the main and the prioritized way prospective MPs communicated with voters, no matter the ecology of the riding. Kevin Lamoureux argued that knocking on doors is the most efficient way for a candidate to get known among his constituents.

“For me during the elections my job is simple - to knock on doors. That's what I do - I knock on doors. Because I attend a lot of events and see many people the reaction that I get at the door really varies. The more you help people or you are being seen by the community - the better. You get a better recognition when you are at that door. I'll give you a specific example. You are with this association, you attend their event and then you see me as the incumbent at the event. The chances are that when I knock on your door during the elections you will treat me with a smile and with an engagement and a dialog. My job is to knock on doors. The fundamentals of the campaign is something you should stick with as a candidate. Social media isn’t one of them. You have to knock on doors.”

Lamoureux highlighted the importance of face-to-face communication as it leads to better name and face recognition among the constituents, and should thus should be prioritized.

As Dan Vandal noticed discussing this topic, face-to-face canvassing neither allowed to target, nor somehow increased the chances of reaching to an ethnic community.

“Largely the same. There was some specific targeting, but mostly it was knocking on doors. That's what I did, spent my time on. As you travel The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 33

from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, some of them have more diversity, such as the south. I managed to outreach to many ethnicities, different types of people. It's not always random, rather more targeted with the use of systems such as the Liberalist. This is the "scatter gun" approach, (although) it's targeted within this approach.”

As Vandal explained, a “general outreach” approach with the possibility to engage in a conversation with constituents who happened to be part of an ethnic community was the general state of affairs.

Campaign systems such as the Liberalist (the online database designed to facilitate canvassing for the Liberal Party of Canada) allowed MPs to single out particularly diverse neighbourhoods in order to be prepared to talk about issues related to the people in those ECs at the doors. As Jim Carr commented on their use of databases:

“There's also sophisticated databases that parliamentarians use. I'm sure in many cases there are databases on ethnicity. That's the way of the future. I like to give general messages to all the constituents. To appeal to broader policy issues that may not affect all ethnic groups, but would be of interest to different groups. Immigration and multiculturalism policies are important. Foreign policy issues are important to some groups. Ukraine and the Middle East are examples. It's important to appeal to issues that are important to specific communities, but it's important to talk about values that are embedded in those policies.”

Jim Carr acknowledged that his campaign used the system alongside his other colleagues, yet he still preferred to talk about policies that would affect broader population. Despite that, he admitted it is equally important to be ready to speak on relevant to a given community issues, and systems like the Liberalist may help be better prepared to have such a conversation. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 34

Candidates in less diverse ridings adhered to the “general outreach” approach. As Douglas Eyolfson explained, his main concern was to reach out to the community at large, rather than target ethnic minorities.

“I hadn't done that. My efforts were basically on the community in large. The Metro, the newspaper that everyone gets, we put signs. I wasn't targeting actual groups, I was targeting everyone around, knocking on all doors I could.”

Eyolfson stated that his riding is not a diverse one: he had no opportunity to go to a neighbourhood with a significant presence of ethnic minority members living in it.

On the other hand, diverse ridings, such as St. Boniface and Winnipeg

Centre, have large ethnic communities who settle in particular neighbourhoods for a reason, which allowed candidates to canvas with a particular message to the people of these neighbourhoods. An example of this might be the area around the University of St. Boniface with a large community of French- speaking international students and their families, or the southern part of his riding.

“One thing I did notice - is if you go to the south of the ward - you will get a lot of new Canadians in Sage Creek. An amazing amount of them. There are new blocks, I knocked on doors there - there are a lot of new Canadians. Of course when you get to the north part, around Saint Boniface University, you'll see a lot of French speaking people from Africa. They are there for education. That becomes apparent in the North part of the ward… It's an attractive part of the city, there's a lot of new housing, especially in the southern part of the ward. In the suburbs. New housing, connection to families and friends who already live here. That's what this attraction would be.” “There was some of [targeting], but not a lot. … There's a wide variety of ethnicities in my riding, mostly in the south. I do some targeting, but not a lot. Just a general outreach. I spent two days in Norwood, talking to members of different ethnic groups The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 35

there. But it's not that I want to target them, I go to Norwood because I need to win that area. I know that there's a lot of conservatives too, and pay extra special attention too.”

Email newsletters

Email newsletters were used as a part of the general online outreach strategy employed by each individual campaign and the federal centre. One group of emails contained messages to party supporters who signed up during various events or online. Another was dedicated to volunteers with words of encouragement. In regards to ECs, email newsletters often contained messages that were relevant to various ethnic groups. The main goal, however, was reaching out to general population, not ethnic communities. When answering a question about his campaign’s approach to email newsletters Dan Vandal pointed out that marginalizing voters for the way they prefer to receive information is a mistake, no matter how popular a particular medium is.

“We send newsletters, having good office staff that listen and respond to the needs of constituents. Through that way how many people actually read my newsletter that are from the immigrant community, but I imagine there's some.”

Vandal explained that the role of email newsletters in his online outreach campaign was marginal. Essentially, email lists did not allow for sending targeted messages to particular EC, nor was this possible in a diverse riding such as Saint Boniface – Saint Vital. Yet, some people in ECs could find it appealing as it contained messages important to them.

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 36

Team members

Candidates not only sought support of the general public and regular members of ethnic communities, they also subsequently employed members of those communities as staff members and volunteers. It is important to mention, however, that they have not made any attempt to recruit someone specifically for the purpose of targeting ethnic communities.

As Terry Duguid pointed out on the diversity of his campaign staff:

“If you look at our campaign it really reflected the riding. Tanjit Nagra, now the president of UMSU was a key member of our team, people from all our communities. These people spoke the language of these communities. Russian, Persian, African, Chinese communities. We had seniors who were stuffing envelopes, reaching out to their fellow seniors. We had youth, we had the university team.”

Duguid explained that knowledge of various languages helped him to deliver his message better when needed.

For many MPs, it was necessary to establish regular communication lines with organized communities. As Terry Duguid explained,

“The campaign is a two-way street. You attend events, you get to know people, they get to know you. I used to live in the northern part of the city, North East, I was the council for that area. It's a very different community than in Winnipeg South where, again, it's much more diverse. There was a couple of communities which I did not know well. I got to know them much better over the last 4-5 of years. We have a large Muslim community; we have the grand mosque. We have Canadians from Pakistan, we have the Chinese community, the largest in the Manitoba. It's growing rapidly. It has not been involved in Politics, but it's getting more and more involved in politics as they settle here and grow in numbers. To answer your question - it's a two-way street - you learn about them, they hopefully learn about you, your interests: that you will support them, that you will champion their causes. That you will try to represent them well when and if you become an MP. “

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 37

Duguid claims that learning the needs of ECs through regular communication with ethnic organizations helped his campaign.

Dan Vandal elaborated on Duguid’s point above, pointing out the structure of some of the organized communities themselves.

“I go to events. Vaisakhi was at the Punjab centre, far away from my community, but I know that there are people that live in Norwood that I know that invited me. I met different people there. People from St. Boniface and St. Vital are part of this community. It's a wider network. My job is to represent people of St. Bon and St. Vital, I go to where they are. Which can be a whole variety of places, not even in my constituency. Sometimes outside of it. My job is to meet people, to talk to them. We are meeting we are having a discussion. My job is to be accessible.”

In other words, organized communities rarely hold constituency specific events, hence, as Vandal points out, meeting with EC’s representatives at city-wide events was important for his campaign.

Another reason for engaging with organized communities was to get them involved into political and even partisan activities. Duguid gives an example of it:

“I've been involved in politics for 30 years. Many of our communities gradually got involved in politics. I got to know them over the years, their leaders. I was a city councillor for two terms. I represented these communities for many years. People are people - you support them, they support you. You work hard. I've been fortunate to know the community. We have people from all over the world. We get along, friends from different cultures, different parts of the world become best friends here, it's wonderful.” Duguid said that building these relationships is a long-term goal, hence he could hardly do that during one campaign alone.

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 38

Events

This section will discuss the role of events in building relationships, policy learning, and, hence, representation of ECs in general. Every MP said that he has attended events of ECs during and after the election campaign. Moreover, their campaigns, later constituency offices have organized them for ECs themselves. The hunch here is that organized communities benefit from their developed network. I will also discuss the variety of events MPs attend or organize, and their importance for the process of representation.

Attending events

It is fair to say that event planning is a time and resource consuming matter; for MPs, it is easier to connect with their constituents at their events, rather than organizing their own. Differences in messages MPs bring with them to these events naturally occur. First, campaign events and events MPs organize or attend after election campaigns have different agendas. Second, difference comes with the nature of an event: either it is a National holiday, a city-wide diversity festival, or an event of a particular local ethnic organization.

Douglas Eyolfson elaborates on why it was important to try to attend as many events as possible in general:

“I feel this is my responsibility, the PM made it clear that our primary responsibility is our constituents. This is how I fulfill my role as my constituents' representative. To talk to them, let them know we are there, they can let me know what they need. With different ethnic groups we keep an eye on announcements of different cultural events that are going The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 39

on. If there's a cultural event, I am willing to come up. They should see that I'm from the government and we are interested in you.”

Learning about events is the beginning. On the one hand, MPs learn from community announcements, as Eyolfson explained in the previous quote. On the other hand, MPs are often being invited by ECs themselves. As Lamoureux points out:

“To me it's important to reach out to communities of all background. They've taken time to invite you, they've taken interest in having you there. If I'm available, I will go.” Therefore, it can be argued that both the MPs and ECs recognize the significance of such events as an element of the representational process. ECs reach out to MPs’ offices and vice versa.

Variations of events

The above-mentioned structure of ECs and the specifics of their activities creates three types of events MPs attend.

The first type describes city-wide or community specific non-ethnic events where MPs often meet EC members or discuss issues important for them

(for example, immigration). For example, Jim Carr discussed national and provincial holidays:

“I'm often invited to Sikh celebrations. It does not matter if it's in my constituency or not. I still go. there are many members of this community that live in Winnipeg South Centre. Chinese community celebrations. Those kinds of celebrations citywide, province-wide or nation-wide.”

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 40

Douglas Eyolfson gives another example of these events, mentioning NGO events:

“I've gone to events at the (local) Rotary club. A couple of local museums, different events at church groups. Army veterans’ events.”

In other words, these are the events that do not specifically target, yet do not exclude EC members.

The second type describes events related to the Canadian diversity or EC issues, often city-wide. Winnipeg’s biggest event that celebrates diversity, the

Folklorama, was mentioned by many MPs. As Jim Carr points out:

“The folklorama time - we are very active in visiting pavilions, advertising, sending good wishes. That kind of public relations… We do it in ways that are consistent with the break down ethnically with the community itself.”

Unique by its nature, Folklorama allows visitors to attend pavilions dedicated to a specific culture and community. Vandal elaborates on Carr’s point:

“I've visited as many pavilions as I could, mostly from my area - the African pavilion, East Indian, Scottish, French Canadian of course, Belgian.”

The emphasis Vandal puts on visiting these pavilions may be the sign of importance of recognition of the riding’s ECs communities’ contribution.

Although Folklorama is a kaleidoscope of a myriad of events happening across the city, to MPs it is a chance to be present at general events as well, such as the opening or the closing ceremony. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 41

The third kind of events MPs attend summarize events of particular ECs.

Local and constituency associations’ events and national holidays are the most common. As Duguid describes it:

“We have a very diverse community. I like to say by the number of events I attend. I attend 5-7 New Year’s events a year. Orthodox new year of course. As I like to say "I celebrate New Year all year long". Korean New year, Chinese New Year, Orthodox New year, Persian New year (Nowruz), Chinese New Year Which is in February. It is a wonderful riding to represent because it is very diverse.”

In addition to this description, Vandal gives a particular example of local ethnic events:

“I had a fundraiser organized by a constituent of mine, who made connection to the East Indian community here. It was that constituent organizing amongst his community. It was a successful fundraiser, a lot of people attended it. There were 70 people. I went to the Belgium Independence Day… Different specific events, a Laotian supper is another example. Looking at the community calendar and attending as many events is the key.”

Here, once again, Vandal strengthens his point for why attending EC specific events is necessary to him – by doing so, he’s able to learn more about issues related to individual communities and engage with its members. Usually, these events are national or religious holidays of some sort. But Dan Vandal also described fundraising dinners and suppers for political purposes

Thus, it can be concluded that MPs attend a lot of events as a part of their representation, campaign, and outreach strategies. Different by their nature, these events allow MPs to address various issues, learn about problems The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 42 that bother constituents of the riding, or just be present and transparent for them.

Event planning

Oftentimes, candidates and MPs organize events themselves. Events serve the purpose of creating better lines of communication between MPs and their constituents. Events vary by their purpose: either those are meet-and-greet kind of events where everybody is welcome or EC specific events.

As an example of the first kind of event, Eyolfson explains that his campaign did not target specific communities during his campaign.

“Not as important as my efforts to the community in large. It wasn't that I did not pay attention, it's just that I did not really focus my attention on any specific communities. At the events - all are welcome, invite everybody. I encouraged to contact me, it was a global approach.”

Rich diversity in their ridings was the main reason for MPs to organize particular events for specific communities or particular issues. Dan Vandal gave an example of such an issue.

“[Once] the minister of immigration was in town so we did an event at the Norwood hotel in St. Boniface on Francophone business immigration. It would encourage business immigrants to come from the French community. It was well received and it was very specific. There was a group of 30 people and it was very specific to the immigration community.”

Vandal focused his attention on an issue that is essential to first generation

Canadians of his riding as well as businesses.

To restate, attending events of ECs is something that every MP I spoke with said that they do. Yet simply attending events often times does not allow The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 43

MPs to do advocacy due to the cultural background of those events. Unless, it is an issue-related occasion, MPs play the role of a public speaker and a representative of the government. Being present and able to learn about issues is the most valuable part of this element of their job. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 44

Issues

According to Pitkin, representation is standing in for the group of others by elected officials is section discusses the issues elected MPs stand in for, categorizes them, and describes the ways MPs learn about and address them.31

In this section, I will categorize the main issues MPs work with. I argue that categorizing issues would yield more useful results in describing the ways

MPs address them due to their substantial differences. Particularly, this section explores the kaleidoscope of issues new Canadians are concerned about. I would argue that these issues can be grouped into three categories based on their specificity and exclusivity:

1. General Interest

2. General EC Interest

3. Specific EC Interest

General Interest issues are those issues that are of interest to the population in general, including members of ECs. General EC Interest issues are those issues that tend to be of concern to members of all EC groups (for example, immigration issues). Finally, Specific EC Interest issues are issues that are of concern to only party ECs but not others.

31 Pitkin 1967 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 45

Defining issues and policy learning

This section will discuss the ways MPs learn about the needs of their EC constituents. With the previously outlined classification of issues MPs work with in mind, this section will discuss some of the differences in the ways MP learn about those issues.

Douglas Eyolfson described his role of an MP as the representative from the government, hence the necessity of policy learning is essential for him. He also clarifies the distinction between the goal of policy learning when it comes to issues of Canadians of ethnic background, particularly recent immigrants.

“Being an MP is a different role, it's non-partisan, there's nothing in this office that says Liberal, it says Canada. I am the representative from the government of Canada. Now instead of the message "vote for me" it is "how can I help you?" I would give the message that we promote an all- inclusive society, we wanted to promote the idea that being a first generation Canadian does not make you less of Canadian. We made a point of distancing ourselves from stances other parties may have had that might alienate new Canadians, different cultural groups. So we said that you are just as Canadian as anyone else on the street. And you will be treated as such. If you have special needs because of your cultural background, we will try to provide you with it.”

Immigration is by all means the bounding issue for every EC. Families want to reunify, businesses want to hire newcomers; they all seek MPs’ assistance. Kevin Lamoureux says that the main channel of communication is via his office.

“In communities where there's a large percent of immigration, there's a need to provide them with services related to immigration: citizenship issues, I get a higher percent of constituencies coming to me regarding that.” The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 46

Kevin Lamoureux also claims that ECs themselves are interested in reaching out to him and his office to let him know about issues that matter to them.

“The number of files I deal with regards to immigration and ethnic type of files that obviously I've developed a caring type of heart in trying to resolve, in dealing with these issues. It does not take away from other issues. If you want to call in the ethnic diversity of communities, there's all sorts of organizations that are based on heritage groups. Those groups want you to be engaged in their respective communities and I enjoy going to the activities of those communities. That is one of the ways of building your reputation by being all of the time available. Not only to be there, but also to serve… I think that communities like individuals like to do research on me, to get to know me. They are happy with the type of representation I provide them with in general. It does not matter what ethnic heritage do people have - if they are nice to me it's hard for me not to be nice to them.”

He argues that engagement with communities, attending their events, meeting with their representatives helps him to learn about these issues.

Lamoureux gave an example of the issue important for a large Punjabi community. In this case, he acted on behalf of the whole Canadian-Punjabi community, not just people of his riding. In regards to the tragedy of Komagata

Maru he said this:

“When something comes up and you would like to get a support for. An example of the Komagata Maru - there was something that went wrong. It wasn't something that the community wanted me to do, been driven by it for me to do, this is something I understand and value. I recognize the importance of the Punjabi community and that wrong should be righted.” He did not mention how he has learned about this issue, however.

Speaking of general issues, newcomers and members of EC and what he does for them, Douglas Eyolfson said the following:

“We have to make sure there's adequate housing. We are trying to bring adequate investments to that as well. We have to make sure that they are aware of all the government services that are available for them. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 47

Language services, financial services, job placement services, training if required. They need housing and information they need to get the services they need.”

Despite that the mentioned issues are of concern to the general population of ridings MPs represent, members of ECs have their own unique perspectives that influence their lives in the way it does not for the majority of the population.

Terry Duguid explains:

“One thing is education. Our new Canadian communities are determined that their kids will get good education. Whether that is in the local schools or at the university. We also have a technical college which is the MITT. That is out here as well. It is attracting new Canadians. They want jobs, they want to raise their families. The quality of education with our university and the Pembina trail school division is excellent. Parents want good education for their kids. One of the issues we championed during the elections campaign was making universities more affordable. Children and childcare. Senior issues are also important in this part of the city. We have in our budget and in our campaign, we promised we would increase the old age security and the guaranteed income supplement for particularly low income seniors and we have them in this part of the city. The number one issue in this part of the city is infrastructure. Transport, roads, highways are in a bad shape. Bicycle pass, walking pass. In St. Vital we have the ground water issue. Our infrastructure has not been kept up to standard.”

I heard an almost identical response from Dan Vandal when he spoke about some of the reasons newcomers choose his riding. Both MPs say that educational institutions such as the University of Manitoba and Université de

Saint Boniface attract families and friends of international students. Some,

Vandal and Duguid say, move to these ridings solely for this purpose. Hence, their interests in the quality of education and related policy issues in general. The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 48

Policy advocacy

Advocacy is the final stage in Pitkin’s cycle of representation, or as

Blidook calls this “an active representation”32. Wahlke distinguishes the focus of representation. “It is best described as the “who” of representation”.33 This section describes different focuses MPs said they have, how they act on behalf of the members of ECs they represent.

To MPs themselves, policy learning and advocacy are two main parts of their job. As Jim Carr summarized it:

“We are in the business of listening to the issues of people in our riding.”

In this section I will discuss three above mentioned categories of issues.

It is important to point out the fact that the first group of issues, namely immigration takes the most of the time of MPs’ offices employees time, not necessarily MPs themselves.

The first aspect of the way MPs address immigration-related concerns of their constituencies is that MPs themselves don’t actually do the majority of work themselves. As Vandal describes it:

“80% of one person's time, and less so of other people that work in the office. For me - what I do, most of my time I'm in Ottawa. I'm a part of the government machine that produces bills. When I'm here - I meet constituents on call basis.” Thus, Vandal implies that the majority of work related to immigration-related concerns is done by dedicated office members, freeing MPs’ time for other

32 Blidook 2012, p. 8 33 Ibid., p. 8 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 49 important responsibilities. Yet, as Douglas Eyolfson explains, there’s a practical reason for this separation of responsibilities, which is the system of immigration in Canada.

Eyolfson describes this with an example of how his team works:

“The vast majority is people who need support navigating the system and this is where my office manager is invaluable. He points people in the right direction. If there is a problem, there's not too much an MP can do directly. If an MP can do something directly that can be defined as ministerial interference. As politicians we can't get involved in the work of government departments. What we can do is to get info they need. If there's some barrier we don't know about, we've been able to deal with it. The fact that I did not have to interfere tells me that the system is working.”

However, working with documents on immigration cases isn’t the only thing

MPs’ assistants do. Duguid’s chief assistant who works with the majority of immigration cases Lee Fehler elaborates on his duties as following:

“80-90% of what I do here is immigration work. That has something to do with our staff set, but immigration is definitely something that keeps me the busiest. Interacting with communities covers other 5-10% of my time. Planning events, helping Terry reaching out to ethnic communities.”

In other words, working on immigration cases, meeting with constituents on their immigration-related concerns might be the issue that keeps MPs’ staff the busiest. Yet they tend to view it as a “one of many” in communities they represent. Moreover, they don’t work with files themselves. Eyolfson explains:

“Of the time I have been spending very little was dedicated towards specific communities. A lot work done with communities in this office has been through immigration and casework. From my part - very little was to specific community, rather than the community at large.”

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 50

This approach was common among MPs I spoke with. Jim Carr agreed with his counterpart on the approach to ECs as members of their constituencies in general. Here’s what he had to say about the approach of his campaign and reaching out strategy towards ECs in his riding:

“You can't separate what matters to ethnic communities from what matters to all constituents. Values expressed by the government are more important. Mine approach to ethnic minorities is to look at what unites us as the country. This distinguishes us as a country that has opened its doors people from all around the world. … Best example would be refugee and immigration file. I heard that at the doors during the election campaign. So did others across the country. We are in the business of listening to the issues of people in our riding. They care about family reunifications. Hearing a number of ideas around a particular policy initiative that would reinforce our instincts as Liberals.”

With that being said, MPs aren’t numb to the issues of specific ECs. Rather, they learn about issues of specific communities and seek a policy-substance answer to them. Lamoureux provides an explanation for this stance:

“There's a considerable amount of time spent on immigration. The problem with putting too much emphasis on the magnitude of immigration files. I don't want people to think that we don’t do other services, but the workload on immigration is definitely the majority of work we do in our office. A fairly decisive majority of the workload. Having said that all issues are important that are brought to the constituency office. When you think of immigration it everything from visiting visas, all sorts of different visas that people need for family members and friends who want to come to Canada. Whether it's to work, study or play. To individuals who want to sponsor their family and friends who want to land in Canada. There's non-immigration, indirect issues such as passport and citizenship. This is how I'd classify immigration and citizenship.”

To reiterate, MPs distinguish three categories of issues that are significant to their constituents of ethnic minorities. MPs also recognize that their constituents may have a different perspective on these issues. During the campaign, MPs The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 51 have made efforts to reach out to ECs to learn more about their issues while knocking on doors and attending events. After the election, MPs still do reach out to ECs, yet now it is their jobs to do so. This is the reason every MP has a dedicated employee that deals with the issue of an utmost importance to ECs – immigration. Notwithstanding this, MPs still should represent the majority of their constituencies; hence, the first response to my question on issues that they think are of a concern to ECs was about general interest issues.\

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 52

Conclusion and discussion

The qualitative, interview based research of this thesis has resulted in an analysis of approaches to representation of ethnic communities by MPs from the city of Winnipeg and their constituency offices and campaign teams.

Namely, I spoke with five representatives of their respective ridings: Kevin

Lamoureux (Winnipeg North), Dan Vandal (St. Boniface – St. Vital), Douglas

Eyolfson (Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley), Jim Carr

(Winnipeg South-Centre), Terry Duguid (Winnipeg South). During the course of these interviews, I addressed two research questions, this thesis is grounded in.

First, how do MPs seek to represent ethnic communities? Second, how can we explain differences in how MPs represent such communities?

With the aforementioned questions in mind, a theoretical framework based on works by Fenno, Pitkin, and Blidook has been selected. The framework is based on the major studies of representation, particularly on the style and focus of representation.

The interview methodology selected for the data collection method allowed me to gain the information of great value regarding the selected research questions. The questions I asked my participants were designed to examine the importance of various factors of influence.

Winnipeg’s internal diversity allows a researcher to juxtapose candidates’ and MPs’ styles and focuses of representation during and after election campaigns in different settings. Essentially, my argument is that The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 53

MPs/candidates based their representational strategies in part on the ecology of their ridings, yet maintained their individuality in terms of campaigning methods and means. Akin to Kelly Blidook, I have attempted to see if the data I’ve collected fits into his proposed model of MPs acting as individuals as well as community oriented representatives. 34

The first major factor that shaped the representational styles of candidates, now MPs, was riding ecology. I argue that candidates in ridings that are more diverse than the county in general, ridings that are close to the median

Canadian diversity rate, and that campaign in ridings with the percentage of minorities lower than the county in general tend to reach out to ECs differently.

The same is true for MPs following election campaigns. MPs in more diverse communities tend to narrow their aim when reaching out to ECs specifically. I also maintain that large and more politically involved ethnic community benefit from their developed community organization; candidates/MPs tend to reach out to them via newspapers, meeting with community leaders, and by attending events more.

The second important factor shaping representational styles is the personality of a candidate/MP. I argue that preferences and opinions of MPs on diverse means and methods of communications were important factors that defined their strategies. The following section will analyse the influence the two aforementioned factors had on individual strategies in particular.

34 Blidook 2012 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 54

The importance of riding ecology

As mentioned earlier, the city of Winnipeg is diverse; in fact, it is more diverse than the country as a whole. Compared to 19% of Canadians whose mother tongue is not one of two official languages or an Aboriginal language. It is important to note that by including Francophones in the category of ethnic minority, it can be seen that the exact quarter of Winnipeg’s population (25%) is of an ethnic, cultural, or linguistic minority, regardless if they are first generation

Canadians or not. 35

Differences between ridings in Winnipeg, however, play an important role as well. I argue that three groups based on the diversity percentage can be distinguished. Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, represented by Douglas Eyolfson, is an example of a homogenous riding with a less visible presence of ethnic communities. Jim Carr, the MP for Winnipeg South-Centre, represents a riding that is almost as diverse as the country in general with

19.7%. Three other MPs I spoke with - Dan Vandal, Terry Duguid, and Kevin

Lamoureux represent ridings that are significantly more diverse than the country in general with 27%, 28%, and 35% respectively.

There is also an actual substance behind these numbers: the larger and the more established these ECs are, the easier it is for candidates to reach out to them. In practice, established communities have their cultural centres MPs can attend, newspapers MPs can advertise in, shops in which they can drop

35 Statistics Canada. 2012 The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 55 their ads, restaurants they may attend for an event, and chief officers of community organizations they can learn policy issues from. MPs were actively engaging with the more established communities during the campaign. They were happy to tell me about meetings they had attended or ads they had published in ethnic newspapers. Yet, with the victory in the elections the focus on preferred media changed alongside with the purpose of reaching out.

Attending events, meeting with community activists, and welcoming EC members at the office doors are the most common answers to the questions about means and methods after the election campaign. The exception here, however, is Kevin Lamoureux, the only incumbent. He was the only one who claimed that his message has not changed a great deal. This related to his personal style of representation with an emphasis on person-to-person communication, as well as the relative safety of his seat in the parliament

(Lamoureux won his riding by 18214 votes in the 2015 election).

Personal preferences

Responses from MPs suggest that personal beliefs, preferences, and priorities did influence election campaigns and, consequently, how they reach out to ECs. Although personal preferences did not necessarily influence the representation of ethnic communities in a direct way, it did so indirectly.

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 56

First, as described in the last chapter, the style of communication, the preferences of conveying messages to the electorate during the campaign and the constituency after the election shaped the process of reaching out to ECs.

When it comes to social media, Kevin Lamoureux expressed his distrust of new technology as the medium for reaching out his EC constituents.

“My job is to knock on doors. We do advertise in ethnic papers. But we don't do that just during the elections. Supporting heritage in ethnic papers has always been important to me and I will continue to do so.”

Dan Vandal, Jim Carr, and Terry Duguid agreed that they used social media to reach out to EC voters during the campaign. Yet they still regarded the medium as promising, yet weren’t fully convinced. Douglas Eyolfson was on the opposite side of the spectrum, displaying a degree of excitement with respect to the possibility of communicating with voters and constituents via Facebook and

Instagram. I am unable to express his intonation with a quote, but he showed a significant degree of excitement and eagerness to rely on social media in future.

This is what he had to say regarding its role in his campaign:

“Social media was huge. I wasn't on social media up until I became a candidate. [Sounds excited] We find that there are events that are important to the community. You put this on social media. If there's a greeting on the matter of a national holiday, we commemorate that, we let them know that they are important.”

Social media wasn’t the only thing that distinguished MPs in their approaches to issues that are important to ECs. Each MP I spoke with was glad to bring up their personal heritage and every each of them mentioned connection with heritage community. Alas, none of them mentioned particular The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 57 issues of importance to their respective communities or gave me a specific example of how they interact with them. Neither did they mention the degree of influence this connection had on their campaigns.

Drawbacks

It is necessary to acknowledge the flaws of the selected method for future research.

First, not all MPs agreed to participate and/or responded to my invitation to participate in the research. Hence, the selected scope won’t allow to generalize about the specifics of representation of ethnic communities in the city of Winnipeg in general. City ecology, particularly its demographics and diversity, cannot be fully addressed henceforth.

Second, this thesis focuses on Liberal MPs’ experiences. I have to acknowledge that although the smaller local scope of my research allowed me to engage in longer conversation with MPs, it does not allow me to project their experience on any other MP in the country.

Finally, a perspective of ethnic communities themselves is necessary to make any compelling arguments about effectiveness of the outreach strategies employed by MPs. Particularly, community leaders—notably figures among diasporas, immigrant, ethnic, language and cultural communities—would speak better as they are usually recognized for their familiarity with the state of affairs within their groups. Combined with this study, a future researcher would be able The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 58 to show a better picture of representation of ethnic communities in Winnipeg,

Manitoba, or Canada.

The Practice of Ethnic Community Representation in Winnipeg 59

Bibliography

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Bilodeau, Antoine, and Luc Turgeon. Voter Turnout among Younger Canadians and Visible Minority Canadians. Evidence from the Provincial Diversity Project. Elections Canada, Elections Canada. 2015.

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Jacoby, Brandon Daniel.. ‘Natural Conservatives?’: Examining The Voting Associations Of Ethnic And Visible Minorty Communities In The Toronto Cma, 2007 To 2011. A Major Research Paper, Ryerson University, Toronto: Ryerson University, 2012.

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Appendix A

Principal Investigator

Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

Telephone: Department of Political Studies

Informed Consent Form

Study Title: The Practice of Ethnic Minority Representation in Winnipeg

Principal Investigator:

Academic advisor:

This consent form, a copy of which I will leave with you for your records and reference, is only part of the process of informed consent. It should give you the basic idea of what the research is about and what your participation will involve. If you would like more detail about something mentioned here, or information not included here, you should feel free to ask. Please take the time to read this carefully.

Project Description: “The Practice of Ethnic Minority Representation in Winnipeg” examines approaches to ethnic minority representation in three ethnically diverse constituencies of the city of Winnipeg. Scholarly studies of ethnic minority representation in Canada suggest that it can be distinguished between three types: policy, service, and symbolic representation. This case study of 3 MPs in ethnically diverse ridings, all three of them from the same party, will analyze how these three MPs represent their constituents in terms of the three mentioned approaches to the subject. Interviews with members of their constituency/campaign staff will tell more about practical implications of the MPs’ decisions, as well as the experience from the ground up. Interviews with representatives of ethnic communities will tell more about the process of interaction, campaigning and, hence, reaching-out and representation.

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature and practice of representation of ethnic communities in Winnipeg constituencies.

I will address two research questions:

1. How do MPs in ethnically diverse constituencies seek to represent ethnic communities? 2. How can we explain differences in how MPs represent such communities?

The methodology for this study involves interviews. I will interview three current MPs of three Winnipeg ridings; those MPs' staff; and representatives of ethnic community associations and groups

Appendix A

that MPs interact with regularly. The interviews will be semi-structured to allow for two-way communication and flexibility in the discussions. Interviews will be conducted in person. All interviews will be recorded if the respondents give me their permission to do so.

In the course of the interview, I will ask you questions about who you seek to represent; how you learn of the needs and preferences of your constituents; how you communicate those needs and preferences to federal government institutions; how you communicate your representative accomplishments back to citizens; and, the amount of time you spend working on issues related to ethnic communities.

This research is directed toward the production of an MA thesis, as well as academic reports, particularly academic journal articles, and scholarly presentations.

Location and Time Requirement: Participation will require approximately 20 minutes of your time and can take place at a location of your choosing (for example, your office or a coffee shop) or over the phone. I will request that you permit me to digitally record our conversation, but if you object I will transcribe it by hand. You have the right to have the recording device turned off for all or portions of the interview.

Participation in this project is voluntary and you may decline to answer any question or withdraw from the study without any negative consequences regarding the services you may be receiving from the government and social services agencies discussed in the interview.

Please initial here if you would like to receive the summary of findings based upon this research ______. Please leave this field blank if you are not interested in receiving them. Feedback will be provided approximately 8 months following the research interview.

Confidentiality:

I would like to include your name in this study.

I agree that my name may be used when referencing some of my comments

Yes ______No _____ Signature of participant______

I will keep any information gathered in this research strictly confidential. All data will be kept in a password-protected computer in my home office or a locked filing cabinet in my home office. Only the myself and my academic advisor will have access to the data. Information containing personal identifiers (e.g., this consent form) will be destroyed as soon as it is no longer necessary for scientific purposes.

Remuneration: No remuneration will be provided in return for your participation.

Dissemination: Results from this research will be disseminated by publication in an M.A. thesis, as well as scholarly publications and presentations.

Appendix A

Risks and Benefits: There is minimal risk to you from participating in this research. In the long-term, you may benefit if the findings of this research help to educate both academics and citizens about the roles played by MPs in the democratic process.

Consent: Your signature on this form indicates that you have understood to your satisfaction the information regarding participation in the research project and agree to participate as a subject. In no way does this waive your legal rights nor release the researchers, sponsors, or involved institutions from their legal and professional responsibilities. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time, and /or refrain from answering any questions you prefer to omit, without prejudice or consequence. Your continued participation should be as informed as your initial consent, so you should feel free to ask for clarification or new information throughout your participation. You may withdraw from the project at any time, by telling me in person, by email or by telephone. If you decide to withdraw, your data will be destroyed. You may contact me at any time before April 1, 2016 if you wish to delete any or all of the information provided during the interview.

The University of Manitoba may look at your research records to see that the research is being done in a safe and proper way.

This research has been approved by the Joint Faculty Research Ethics Board. If you have any concerns or complaints about this project you may contact any of the above-named persons or the Human Ethics Secretariat at 474-7122, or e-mail [email protected]. A copy of this consent form has been given to you to keep for your records and reference.

______Participant or Delegate’s Signature Date

______Researcher and/or Delegate’s Signature Date

Email or surface mail address to which a summary of findings and the summary of findings (at your option) should be sent:

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